26 BULLETIN 446, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Table XXI. — Labor and cost chargeable per acre prior to harvest on orchards under 

 mulch-crop management (30 ranches). 1 



Operation. 



Cultivation 



Irrigation 



Labor on mulch crop . . . 



Manuring 



Pruning 



Hauling brush 



Propping 



Thinning 



Spraying (lime-salphur) , 

 Spraying (lead-arsenate). 

 Miscellaneous 



Total. 



Hours per acre. 



Man. 



11.74 

 35.66 

 16.64 



4.32 

 40.31 

 11.86 

 19.01 

 53.29 



8.13 

 19.99 



9.06 



230. 01 



Horse. 



9.67 

 7.92 



14.46 

 10.73 



5.42 

 13.45 



1.12 



Cost per acre. 



Man. 



$2.94 

 8.92 

 4.16 

 1.08 



10.08 

 2.97 

 4.75 



13.32 

 2.03 

 5.00 

 2.27 



57.52 



Horse. 



$3.22 



1.45 

 1.19 



2.17 

 1.61 



.81 

 2.02 



12.47 



Total. 



$6.16 

 8.92 

 5.61 

 2.27 



10.08 

 5.14 

 6.36 



13.32 

 2.84 

 7.02 

 2.27 



69.! 



Cost per 

 box. ' 



$0. 1029 



i All items of labor, except cultivation, irrigation, and labor on mulch crop, are the same as under clean- 

 cultural management. A credit of $9 is given for 1 ton of alfalfa per acre. 



HANDLING THE CROP. 



Handling the crop includes all harvesting labor necessary to deliver 

 the packed box to a local association or a railway station. This labor 

 consists of hauling apple-box shooks to the ranch, making the apple 

 box, picking, hauling empty and full boxes to and from the orchard 

 during harvesting, all paoking-house labor, and the delivery of the 

 packed box to the local association or the railway station. The 

 total handling charges are about 23 per cent of the total cost of pro- 

 duction. The various steps in the handling of the crop will be dis- 

 cussed in the usual order of their occurrence. All apples for shipment 

 are packed in the standard Northwest box, the inside measurements 

 of which are 10| by 11| by 18 inches. 



HAULING SHOOKS. 



In preparing for harvest the orchardist usually hauls a part or 

 all of his box shooks to the ranch the latter part of the summer 

 previous to the beginning of harvest. Many orchardists haul a por- 

 tion of their shooks on return trips from hauling packed boxes to the 

 shipping point during harvest time. Some buy box shooks on contract, 

 delivered at the ranch. Others buy them and pay a stipulated price 

 for delivery. This price of course varies with the distance the shooks 

 are hauled. A crew of 1 man and 2 horses will haul approximately 

 477 box shooks a distance of 1.83 miles in two hours. The average 

 cost per mile per shook for hauling is $0,002 and the average distance 

 hauled is 1 .79 miles. A crew of 1 man and 1 horse is sometimes 

 used for hauling shooks, but there were not enough records of this 

 method to give a reliable average. 



